One of the basic tenets of American life, writ in stone, is that TAXES ARE BAD! That's one article of faith the mass 'news' media will never trespass on. So we see Tea Party after Tea Party demonstration on TV, as Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania tells us, without any coverage of even larger contrary demonstrations elsewhere. (Though the Tea Party types admittedly possess a certain fascination.)This was on Common Dreams yesterday....
SPRINGFIELD -- Thousands of protesters bused down by labor unions and social service advocates rallied at the Capitol today in an attempt to pressure state lawmakers into raising the income tax to avoid more budget cuts....
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/04/22-2
I would have marched with them. For, like many a Tea Partyer, I enjoy the numerous benefits government provides. And since I know damn well I could pay a little more in taxes without really noticing, and would be willing to, I know the end of the world will not come about by a tax increase. After all, if I can afford it the rich certainly can.
I've been around for a awhile. And have seen many an anti tax movement materialize. They're good at finding rationalizations - Reaganomics codified their philosophy. But as John K. Galbraith said, "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
Dear 雯彬 -
ReplyDeleteAh, but there can be company in a crowd of like minded brothers and sisters. Of course, some may only want to meet in a bar. And may care about nothing else. And after a few drinks......
And for those of you who have missed this.... or for whom it hasn't come by yet.....
ReplyDeletehttp://ephphatha-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/04/imagine-if-tea-party-was-black-tim-wise.html
Beware of 雯彬. I've been locked out of my account for a week...and it's a nightmare trying to find a human to help me at Google. Everything is an automated form...and the robot won't believe I'm me. The robot prefers 雯彬 or whomever. Friends are confirming my blog has disappeared, yet everyday I am receiving notices that 雯彬 still is commenting on it. It's somewhere...but where and how can I get back. Obviously I can't sign in either...and the worst part...Bartender just brought me a stiff drink---thanks, buddy---and I can't taste it!!!
ReplyDeleteJazzy! So glad to see you figured out a way to comment here. Still crossing my fingers for you!
ReplyDeleteI found a Google page where you can request a review of your situation by an actual human! Alas though, now all I can do it wait. But uncross your fingers dear jin, and whip up a plate of rumcakes for the crowd.
ReplyDeleteDoug McClellan runs one of the biggest "blogs" on the Internet, Arts Journal. This arrived half an hour ago~~~
ReplyDeleteNOTE TO READERS:
Monday night the ArtsJournal website was hacked and blocked by Google. The hack was found and cleansed Tuesday morning (your computer was not at risk – this was a hack that targeted websites), and by Tuesday night Google reported that they didn’t detect any malware. (That’s good). What’s not good, is that Google didn’t release the block on the site until this morning.
As a precaution, we stopped sending newsletters Tuesday (the last newsletter you should have received was Tuesday’s newsletter, which went out Monday night.). I am going to send out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday’s newsletters in the next few minutes, so that you don’t miss anything.
Sorry for the inconvenience. If you want to read more about what happened and our frustration with trying to get Google to unblock us, I posted about it on the National Arts Journalism Program site here: http://www.najp.org/articles/2010/04/google-killing-artsjournal.html
Stay tuned for your newsletters. They should arrive shortly. And thanks for your support.
Doug
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Douglas McLennan
Editor, ArtsJournal.com